Eclecticism
by Canadino
Summary: Simon has an overactive imagination. Jack/Simon, pre-canon


**Disclaimer: : The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: -

The dark-haired alter boy sighed to himself. Snuffing out the candles after every service on this church atop a mountain was monotonous and tedious work. Who did the head priest think he was satisfying anyway? The only rare visitors of the house of worship were hikers who wanted to send a prayer before continuing to climb or giving thanks as they descended. They never stayed the entire time and the only ones to receive the body of Christ were the other monks and…well, him.

Well, it wasn't that Simon resented the orphanage for sending him here. After his parents died in the flu epidemic years back, he had bounced from orphanage to orphanage, never _quite_ getting along with any of the other children until the matron of one, a rather large woman named Ms. Reinheart, decided to end this vicious cycle and send him away to an observatory. They needed young, able bodies anyway and with the quiet, meek way he carried himself, she figured Simon would be perfect at a religiously-affiliated one.

Now the head priest, Father David, seemed to be suggesting at every point they met that he was currently training Simon to succeed him. "Yes, you would be perfect to lead this place," he said as Simon tried to walk around him to the kitchen. "Leading the other men in prayer and research; yes, I am glad you came here."

Simon liked the church; he certainly liked the idea of a loving God and his Son. But he really couldn't see himself as a priest; he didn't feel comfortable appearing as the medium between God and man. Suppose they didn't think he was strong enough? He had had a strange medical condition since birth that caused him to faint from time to time, which Father David seemed ecstatic about ("Oh, young Simon, didn't you know that faints can bring a soul closer to God?") – but what if the other brothers started a mutiny against him? No, it was much too strenuous to have that much responsibility thrust upon him.

He didn't mind copying notes and cleaning the telescopes. He enjoyed staying up deep into the night and helping with research. He found he rather liked the stars. They were so far above their heads but from time to time they would find new things about them. Simon liked looking up into the inky black sky and seeing those tiny, pinpricks of light. The universe was so much vaster than any of them and it was a humbling experience.

As Simon blew out one of the larger candles, Father David came from the main building to cross the church to his office. "Good work today, Simon," he said, nodding. "The church needs boys like you." Simon waited for another comment about his ascension to the role of priest but it never came – Father David merely continued strolling until he disappeared into the back of the church to his quarters. Simon let out a sigh of relief.

One of the brothers told him one time that when you blew out a candle, the smoke went straight up to God and it was good to send a prayer while doing so because He was going to hear it. Well, he had wasted seven prayers (they were starting to sound more like wishes, when he thought about it). As he watched the silver smoke swirl upward, Simon focused upon it and thought _I wish to get out of here_.

The observatory was a good place – the people there were friendly and the scholars were helpful and not at all arrogant or haughty. He was fed decently and treated well, but…there was more of the world than this place on the mountain. As much as Simon liked the birds and the nature around him, he wanted to go to other places, explore other lands. He'd had enough of this place for seven years and he was waiting for a chance to go. Father David would probably be livid at the thought – his apprentice leaving! He would not be able to leave if he asked. But Simon could feel it; he had a feeling he would not spend the rest of his days here.

He had had a dream. Now he was sure everyone else had dreams and they didn't necessarily mean anything, but some of his dreams had been prophetic, such as when he dreamed a wild cat broke into the kitchen and made a mess of the pantry. Or when Brother Scott fell asleep at his desk and knocked over a candle on his notes (Simon had lurked close to his room that day and was able to extinguish it before it could burn down the entire observatory). Simon knew this dream was not just an ordinary dream – and it was a reoccurring dream, as it haunted him for several nights already.

There was a hero; a hero in shining silver armor, not like the weathered hikers in their thick clothes and leather boots. No, this hero was hardened in another way, from numerous other adventures, and he would have a shiny helm that he would take off once he burst into the church and he would have fiery red hair (and his name would be Jack, Simon decided). He would have a sword at his side and he would come and say that he had fought many enemies to reach this monastery on the mountain and had come to claim a prize. And Father David would refuse, say that this place was a house of God and they did not have much money and if Jack decided to destroy the place, then may the devil be upon him.

The hero, Jack, would say he was not looking for gold or jewels. He would look at Simon with his piercing blue eyes and say that he would leave without a fuss if they handed over their sole alter boy. Father David would have none of that. Instead of showing a temper, he would offer Jack some data they had researched and a place to stay for a couple days and then he must leave because he was interrupting the observatory. And Jack would agree, because he would not strike down a holy man but he would have other plans.

But there were more to his dreams – Jack would turn out to be a great scholar and stayed longer than Father David expected. And he would always find himself at Simon's side. Once, when Simon was watering the garden and singing softly while doing so, Jack would overhear and listen. He would be business-like at first, as his original goal would be to come to the church and take away the alter boy, but he would change over time and would fall in love with Simon, and Simon – well, he would find himself falling for Jack too.

And then one night, Jack would come into his room and say that his people needed him because he was also a prince of a distant land, besides being a hero, and he needed to return to them but he was going to be taking Simon with him. He was a traveling prince, he explained, and he would not be staying at his castle at all times and he needed someone to come with him and keep him company and Simon would be just the person. Simon, being the righteous alter boy, would resist at first but would allow Jack to whisk him away and as they were making their way down the mountain, Father David would check in his room and find him, along with the visiting hero, vanished.

On their first night back at Jack's castle, after reconvening with the king, they would exchange awkward confessions of love and Jack would kiss him gently and slide off his shirt and it didn't matter that he had been raised in a monastery because Jack would take it slow and…

But he was getting ahead of himself. Simon berated his overexcited thoughts as he smoothed out the white cloth over the alter. He still needed to wait for the hero to arrive. Until then, he would have to play the part and stay patiently for the day when the door slammed open and freedom was at hand.

Just as he finished the thought, the oak doors to the church suddenly opened and in the light was a silhouette, a tall, dark figure. Simon's heart skipped a beat; he had just been pondering it and here he was, the hero in shining armor and he was walking up the aisle to the alter. And Simon gulped, because he couldn't remember what his dreams told him the first thing the hero said to him, what was it? Anyway, it was probably something like, "Simon, you've been smoothing that alter tablecloth thing for ten minutes already. Are you okay?"

Simon blinked. Jack gave him a funny look, raising a single eyebrow. He was not in a mountain monastery; he was in his school church. The candles were already cold from being blown out. He was not dressed in alter boy gear and Jack was not in armor: they were both wearing the school uniform. "I know Father David asked you to blow out the candles after choir practice, but you don't have to clean the place for him. Anyway, if you still need me to give you a ride home, you're going to have hurry up. Ms. Reinheart just came up and asked me why I was loitering around in the parking lot after school."

"Oh." Well. Ah! Perhaps Ms. Reinheart had been the real villian behind sending him to the monastery! She and Father David were cohorts! And Jack had saved him the same. In the end, it didn't matter if Jack didn't slay any dragons with an epic sword. He was still going to take him home on his majestic steed, which happened to be a dark blue, rundown five-year-old car. So, really, it was still a happy ending.

Yes.

[=]

Note: Simon _would_ have an over active imagination. Sorry for not writing a lot lately; ever since I've taken out the OOC characterizations of Simon and Jack and distilled them into my OCs Shiloh and Jasper, I've been focusing more on developing them in original fics than my LOTF fanfics. So ideally I'll be writing the more in-canon, in character personalizations as fanfics and the bad, law-breaking, scheming ones as Shiloh and Jasper. But thanks for reading!


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